King of the Castle! : Hand, Foot & Mouth, Oh My!!

Ugh. That's all I have to say. Well, actually no it's not, but it's how I feel. Luckily, this illness looks and sounds a lot worse than it actually was...or at least in J Man's case. We had a pretty rough first 24 hours, but after that, he was much better.

Started on Thursday during the day. He was just clingy and moody with my parents and Mom took his temp to find it was 100.7. He slept quite a bit and just wasn't his normal happy self. That night he hardly ate anything and would cry every time he coughed. I thought for sure it was teeth and probably an ear infection since those two things have kind of gone hand in hand the last few times teeth have popped through! Getting him to sleep was a bit tough - he woke up after about an hour of going down and needed to be held and rocked back to sleep. Did it again after another couple of hours, which was OK because it was still only about 10:30. He then slept until about 6:45.

On Friday afternoon, we took him to the doc and he had an ear infection in his right ear and a red throat. I asked about hand, foot and mouth since I saw one teeny tiny little bump under his lip and because he had been exposed to it earlier that week. Dr. Boe said he didn't think so, so we went on our merry way. Rest of the day consisted of snuggles and naps and us trying to get some food and fluid in him. He basically had his plug in his mouth 24/7, as I imagine it eased the pain in his mouth. By bath time, he was drooling like a mad man and a few more spots had popped up around his mouth. We pretty much knew at that point that it had to be HFMD. He slept great that night, waking pretty early Saturday because he was hungry. But, went right back to sleep after he drank some milk. More bumps appeared throughout the day on his face and the a few showed up on his hands. He seemed to be in much better spirits, but still kind of clingy, moody and sleepy. Still not eating too much due to the sores on the inside of his mouth and that pacifier became a permanent fixture. Sunday was much better - he ate a lot better and, for the most part, seemed like happy bean again. He took three naps that day, so definitely still sleeping more than usual.

As of today, he is pretty much 100% - just still looks a little rough with the remnants of the bumps! Still not quite eating as well as he was before this disaster, but give the kid some raspberries, blueberries or a Gerber cookie and he will suck them down in minutes! I think this is definitely proof that you can't just write off a fever to teething or being worn out - more times than not, it is something. I have read that if people have had HFMD, they can't get it again, so I guess that is one good thing to come out of all of this. And, the extra cuddles weren't so bad either!